Aftermath
I’m actually writing this on Saturday, as Floyd had a few unexpected after-effects. It may not have been a hurricane and just a tropical storm, but he left one heck of a lot of wind to follow him.
I was unable to get into the web site on Thursday so I couldn’t post that entry, but it’s up now here . Then yesterday was a whole adventure unto itself.
Yesterday morning the rain had pretty much stopped, but it was still overcast and breezy. By mid-afternoon the sky had cleared, the temperature was only in the 60’s and the wind was viscous. Trees were swaying and bending and branches were breaking off all over the place, making some of the streets difficult to drive through.
The biggest surprise was when I got home and discovered that everything was operating at about half-power. It was called a brown out.
I called it damn inconvenient.
I had an appointment to get my hair cut at four, so I hoped that by the time I got back everything would be back to normal. My hairdresser was operating a half-hour behind schedule, so I figured that gave them even more time to get things fixed.
Wrong.
Everything was still wonky when I got home, and the clock on the microwave was having an attack. It was flashing on and off and making this weird clicking sound. Being afraid of an explosion I pulled the plug.
This half-power thing meant that I couldn’t use the computer (eek!!), couldn’t cook dinner, couldn’t watch t.v. (cable was out too I guess, or it may have been that the television required more power than I had at my disposal.)
I didn’t think it would be a problem, as Dee and I had made plans to go to dinner and then do something else. But she’d left a message on my machine that she was too tired to go out. Here we go again.
So I went to dinner alone and then decided I might as well go shopping. At least there would be lights and entertainment. So I visited office supply stores, craft stores and bookstores, spending too much money in each spot.
I love milky-gel pens and dark paper these days. So I bought some swirly ones to play with. I already have all the single color ones. I also got some special colored papers to use with them.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I started buying decorations and other stuff. I also got a couple of things to send to Michael. They have to do with Frankenstein and aliens, two of his interests. Long story.
I also bought way too much stuff for the kids at school. This teacher who resents my four neediest little pups being in her class is getting to me still. So I’ve decided to make a little nest area for us to work in when I’m in the room, and got all sorts of fun pens, stickers, crayons, makers etc. to keep stashed there. I’m hoping this will help the four kids, as keeping organized is one of the biggest issues they face. So I’ve decided to see if I can keep this small part of their day in control.
I did have a planning meeting with their teacher at the end of the day so I hope that I’ve calmed her down just a bit. If I can get her to see that these kids have talents that are beyond the ability to keep up with the rest of the class academically and that they deserve to be included, I’ll have made huge headway.
The last stop last night was at Barnes and Noble, where I managed to fritter away a good hour. It’s so easy to get lost in bookstores. Fortunately, I managed to contain my spending and only got a couple of magazines and a Griffin and Sabine datebook for 2000. I don’t think I’ll use it as a datebook. I just wanted the illustrations to use in collages. If you’re not familiar with Griffin and Sabine, it’s a series of three books that are both art and story, written and illustrated by Nick Bantock. Put together as a correspondence between a man and a woman, and containing postcards, illustrations, even letters and envelopes to be opened. It’s just wonderful. Go hereto find out more.
I optimistically headed home just before 10, hoping all power would have been restored and I would be able to see the tiebreaker episode of "Iron Chef".
All hopes were dashed.
All that I had was mood lighting.
Except in the bedroom where the power was at full tilt. This made it even weirder, half the apartment wasn’t working, and the other half was operating in normal mode.
This sort of weirded me out, so I called Boston Edison to inquire. It took a good fifteen minutes to get thorough all the voice mail features and get to a human. I explained what was going on, and she thought that it was a bit weird too.
Oh that made me feel ever so much better!
She was actually very nice and reported the situation right away. I figured that was all I could do, and knew that given the number of power outages in the area things wouldn’t be fixed right away.
I gave up and went to bed.
Sometime during the night things were restored. I woke up at five a.m. and the lights were blazing.
I’m hoping this means that we’ve seen the last of Floyd.
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